1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to calculation or reduction of fees for roaming or forwarding of communications links.
2. Background of the Related Art
In mobile terminal device networks, especially telephone terminal devices, or in mobile wireless networks, it increasingly common for local areas to be defined in which cheaper rates or fees are offered by the network operators. The local area is usually identical to a local radio area, such that the local radio area corresponds to at least one radio zone of a wireless network. The lowest rate applies as long as the mobile telephone terminal device is located in that local radio network. Operators hope for greater use of mobile terminal devices through the offered local radio areas or local areas, especially mobile wireless terminal devices.
Low rates are often assigned to these local areas, especially for communication links within the local radio network and in fixed networks. Flat rates are then offered to mobile wireless terminal devices or their users, giving them unlimited telephone calling from and within the local area, generally to network addresses—which are usually the telephone numbers of fixed networks—in and from the fixed networks. The local area can be selected by the user of the mobile wireless terminal device, primarily a local radio area in their place of residence.
A local radio area is a transmitter or base station with a radio area assigned, over which the transmitter sends wireless signals in its radio area with its recognition signal or transmitter recognition signal. If a mobile wireless terminal device uses a transmitter with that recognition signal, then it is located in that local radio network. Because the radio areas of transmitters overlap, radio areas are not precisely defined, and therefore mobile wireless network operators guarantee a minimum size of the local radio area.
If a communication request is signaled from the fixed network to the mobile wireless terminal device with the network address of the fixed network, the signal is directed to its local radio area. However, if the mobile wireless terminal device is not located in the local radio area, then roaming is initiated and the signal is forwarded from the local radio network to the local area in the mobile wireless network where the mobile wireless terminal device is located at that time. This roaming or forwarding of a connection request from one local area to another local area, or the signaling related to it, leads to higher fees, which actually should be reduced by adjusting a local radio area.